Day 37 – July 25, 2019

Today we bid a fond farewell to the Harty home and their caretaker, Sir Kitty Soft Paws.

Mr. Soft Paws took a very strong liking to me. He purred loudly as he would sit on my lap and sink his very sharp claws into my skin. I was like he was saying, “I really like you but now you much suffer horrible pain.”

We left late, again. Not naming names, but Ashley and Kathy.

The motley crew of animals assumed their seats in the middle row.

We were headed out of town when I said what I had been thinking. We should return to Carowinds since it was already lunch time and we could score a free meal. As an added bonus, Ashley and I could ride Fury 325 one last time.

We finally got to ride in the front row while Kathy evaluated the tenting options in Atlanta.

We secured our lodging at the famous Stone Mountain campground outside Atlanta. It is always nice to know where we are staying before sunset.

We got burritos for lunch and by 2 we were back on the road.

On our way to Atlanta, we stopped at the BMW plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. While there were no more tours of the plant available on this day, they have a small collection of BMWs to look at.

We stayed long enough to stretch our legs and it was back on the highway.

We drove straight to our campground just east of Atlanta at Stone Mountain Park.

Stone Mountain is a beautiful place. It is a scenic escape from the big city. It has a lake, hiking trails, biking, camping, resorts, you name it.

The centerpiece is the massive stone mountain. Sculpted into the side of the mountain is the likeness of the three best known members of the Confederacy: Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and Robert E. Lee.

Significant political pressure is currently being exerted to sandblast the carvings and remove all of the references to the Confederacy within the park, of which there are many.

There is a nightly laser show that is projected on the side of the mountain. We tossed up the tent and headed to the show.

We saw the show in 2007. It mostly centered on the Civil War. An animation showing the United States being torn into two received the loudest ovation. To us, the reaction was shocking.

Tonight’s show was completely different. It was more of a pop music show. For most of the show, the sculptures were hidden behind all the animations, lasers, and fireworks.

There was one short section of the show devoted to the Civil War featuring Elvis singing “Dixie”.

The tearing of the country in two was removed. It was a bummer because I wanted to see how the audience would react in 2019.

We raced back to the van and we were back to tent within minutes. It was a fun day considering we did a lot of driving. We were all pretty tired.